Memento mori, “remember you will die.” From Greek and Roman philosophers to Christian ascetics and medieval monks, acknowledging that death comes for us all prompted contemplation about how to live a life of virtue and promote justice. But while many in the modern West complain about the state of our society, how often do we think about or discuss our pending deaths?
For most of human history, death was something people confronted in their daily lives. Deaths of infants, mothers in childbirth, friends and family from disease, the loss of a child or parent to war, and passing of elderly parents who lived with their children and grandchildren. Death was not something distant and ignored; rather, death was ever-present and a constant reminder of our mortality.
In philosophy and theology, the fact that man is mortal and faces punishment in the afterlife was one of the driving forces for ethics; developing habits of virtue to be practiced on earth and that would lead to happiness in the afterlife. Greek philosophers deduced that each person has a soul, that there is a Supreme Being, and that there was an afterlife where a person was rewarded or punished for their deeds on earth. Having confronted death and threatened annihilation throughout their history, Jews knew by Divine revelation that God created them and they faced blessing or punishment for themselves and their descendants based on their actions. Christians, with the Good News of Jesus Christ who was risen from the dead, knew that they faced Heaven or Hell when they perished.
Through the blessings of science, death is now rare and remote. The mortality rate of infants and children is historically low. Death from disease is relatively rare. We usually only confront death when a parent dies. But even then, death is remote. Our aged parents often live far away in a nursing home. Our children rarely visit them and may not attend the funeral. Death from war or famine are mere images on our screens, no more real than the simulated deaths in movies, TV, and videogames.
This works to the detriment of our souls, communities, and politics. When we fail to acknowledge death, we do not think about what happens when we die. And if we do not think about what will happen when we die, we do not need to care about our actions while living.
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates argues that the state is the soul writ large. This is not mere analogy, but an insight that disordered souls within a community can lead to a disordered state or government.
Though disordered states are not new, one senses that the West has entered a new era of disorder. Our politics are harsher and we’ve lost our civic virtue in working through issues with reason and respect. We demonize each other, shout slogans, and will not allow logic and facts to change our opinions. The absence of the fear of death frees us from ethics. As Dostoevsky observed, “If there is not God, everything is permitted.” The horrors of atheistic Nazism and Communism prove the veracity of this statement. Can one have confidence that the modern West couldn’t fall into ideologically driven madness? Watching the news makes one doubt.
We all lament this, but we cannot seem to find a political solution. We keep wishing everyone could agree on something. (The proclamation of “my truth” demonstrates our retreat from a world governed of reason.) Of course, the search for a political solution does not address the underlying problem. The framework of government and individual laws must be built upon a virtuous people. Ethics define individuals; individuals define culture; and culture defines politics.
It is hard not to conclude that our avoidance of the one thing that unites all humankind — that each of us will die — has contributed to our societal and political dysfunction. Though no one wishes to return to the days of “death all around us,” we should take the time to reflect on our mortality. In such reflection, we should consider how our actions contribute to societal dysfunction and commit ourselves to being virtuous and seeking justice. All of us face the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, hell. Which do you choose? Memento mori.
Bernard L. McNamee is a lawyer in Richmond, Virginia.
